


A Spark Is All We Need

by AmiLu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Russian Translation Available, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-29 03:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12622268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmiLu/pseuds/AmiLu
Summary: "That's a cat."Matt nodded, but the way in which he pressed his lips together alerted her that, in fact, there was more to the picture than what it appeared at first glance. She narrowed her eyes and then groaned."Please, please tell me that it's just a stray cat you decided you want to adopt."Matt held the kitten with one hand and with the other scratched the back of his head, laughing awkwardly.





	A Spark Is All We Need

**Author's Note:**

> [RUSSIAN TRANSLATION](https://ficbook.net/readfic/6498462/16614179) courtesy of Kotren Ten | [Jedi Cat](https://ficbook.net/authors/1365221) (Thank you so much!! <3)

"Pidge, I need your help."

Pidge froze for a moment, and then let out an aggravated, deep sigh.

"What trouble have you gotten into this time?" She rubbed her eyes and then turned to look at her brother, who smiled sheepishly at her and lifted up a small black kitten. She frowned. "That's a cat."

Matt nodded, but the way in which he pressed his lips together alerted her that, in fact, there was more to the picture than what it appeared at first glance. She narrowed her eyes and then groaned.

"Please, please tell me that it's just a stray cat you decided you want to adopt."

Matt held the kitten with one hand and with the other scratched the back of his head, laughing awkwardly.

Pidge sighed and took off her glasses, then put her hands together as if in prayer, in front of her mouth, and regarded Matt with a piercing stare.

"What." She took a deep breath and took on the kitten's overall stressed demeanor. "What did you do?"

Matt shifted his weight from foot to foot and carefully tried to pet the small ball of fluff, but the cat was obviously not up to that, if its hissing and batting away with tiny little claws was anything to go by.

"I might have, ah, been trying to cast a new spell and accidentally turned someone into a cat."

Pidge closed her eyes and let her face fall into her hands. Why, why did she always have to deal with this kind of stuff?

"What the fuck, Matt. You know that transfiguration is not something I'm very adept at. Heck, if it doesn't have to do with either computers or plants, I'm not good at magic, full stop. And that's a kitten. I don't see wires anywhere, and it doesn't look too leafy to me, does it?"

"He."

Pidge stared. "What?"

"He. Um. The cat is a boy."

Pidge felt like pulling at her hair. "Okay, he. That's perfect. Do you know who this person is, at least? Maybe he'll have some magical relative who knows what to... of course you don't. Of course," she lamented as she took in Matt's contrite expression.

"Ah, sorry," he said, and then hissed when the kitten successfully scratched his hand in a way that let him escape and take refuge beneath the couch. "I panicked, okay? I wasn't expecting anyone to be there! And suddenly... _'poof'_." Matt made a broad gesture with his hands, and then quickly healed the one the kitten had scratched. "I really should stick to healing magic."

“You should.” Pidge sighed and rubbed her face. She bit her lip, considering, and absently drummed a rhythm on her knee with her fingers.

Meanwhile, Matt got on his hands and knees and peered beneath the couch, trying to entice the boy-turned-cat to come out. There was a hiss that clearly stated that the cat didn’t particularly want to.

“C’mon, kitty, kitty, kitty. C’mon, come ‘ere. I’ll give you something nice. Uh. Fish? Do we have fish? Or… milk?”

“Don’t you dare give him milk. It’ll upset his stomach,” Pidge scolded automatically. She sighed again, uncrossed her legs, and then stood up before making her way towards her brother. “Does he know he’s human?” she asked as she crouched beside him, peering into the darkness. The cat’s black fur hid him nicely—she couldn’t see him at all.

“Uh?” Matt yelped and snapped his hand back. The fingertips were bloody. He pouted, glared at the perpetrator in the shadows, and then put the fingers to his lips. When he took them away, they were healed. “What?”

“I asked if he remembers he’s human. I know that if _I_ were the one who was suddenly turned into a cat by a stranger, I’d be pissed. And if I still remembered being human while said stranger treats me like a real cat, I’d be _more_ than pissed. And humiliated.”

Matt paled. “Oh, no. Pidge, I think I might’ve fucked up.”

Pidge fought off the need to pinch the bridge of her nose, and instead turned to the angry—and probably very afraid—stranger-turned-cat. “Hey, dude. I’m sorry about my brother. He can be an idiot sometimes,” she said, ignoring Matt’s wounded look. The hissing stopped. Encouraged, she continued, “but he’s quite resourceful, too. I’m sure that if you come out we can help you go back to normal. I promise we won’t treat you like a cat anymore.”

They had to wait a couple of minutes after that, and Pidge could practically feel her brother vibrating with tension at her side. Then, slowly, a small paw tentatively took a step out of the darkness, and there followed the whole dark body of the boy-turned-cat. His eyes were wary and very, very human even though the pupil was slitted. Pidge smiled at him, but didn’t try to touch him. Matt’s hand twitched, but he resisted, too.

After a moment of quiet tension, the boy-turned-cat seemed to deem them trustworthy enough because his body language relaxed. Not completely, but enough.

“Hi. I’m Katie Holt, but everyone calls me Pidge. And this idiot here is my brother, Matt. I’m sorry we don’t know your name, but—”

The boy-turned-cat meowed. Pidge stopped and frowned. “Are you trying to tell me something?” A long, drawn-out meow. “I’ll take that as a yes. So, what is it? Um. We don’t know your name?” A hiss. “No? We do?” Another hiss. “I do?” A long meow.

“Since when do you speak cat, Pidge?”

“So I _do_ know you?” A hiss. Pidge frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Maybe you know _of_ him?” Matt offered. A long meow. “You know someone that knows him, too!” A long meow. It almost sounded approving. Matt’s eyes widened. “Wait, do _I_ know of you, too?” Instead of a hiss or a meow, the cat-boy did a weirdly cute huffing noise. “What’s that?” Matt asked, completely bewildered.

“Maybe he isn’t sure.” Pidge shrugged. “Okay, but for sure we know that one of my friends must know him, so let’s go with that—wait. Where did you say you were practicing?”

“I didn’t, actually. But, uh. It was at the College’s library.”

“So you go to the Galaxy Garrison?” A long meow. “Well, that makes it easier. Do you know Ethan?” A hiss. “Kyle? No? Hunk? Lance?” A long meow. “Lance?” Another long meow, accompanied by what seemed to be an unconscious pat with his paw. Pidge got excited with him, until she remembered that Lance had gone back to his family’s for the break. “Uh, sorry, buddy. Lance’s not here.” The ears drooped and Pidge’s heart melted a little. That was adorable. “Do you know Hunk? Shiro?” The drooped ears snapped to attention and Pidge found herself subjected to the most intense stare she’d ever been on the end-tail of.

“You know Shiro?” Matt asked in surprise. The cat-boy turned to look at him and meowed loudly. “That’s great! I can totally take you… or… call him here, yeah, I can do that, too, don’t glare at me, please.” Matt laughed awkwardly. “Shiro’s very good at magic, and I’m sure he can undo this without a problem. Especially since, you know, he knows you.”

The cat-boy took two steps forward and nuzzled Matt’s shin before retreating again, and meowing. Matt laughed, half-startled, half-delighted.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll call him now. By the way, I’m really sorry I caused you all this trouble. Once you can speak again, please tell me what I can do to compensate you.” He stood and left the room, probably in search of his smartphone.

Pidge shook her head and smiled at the cat-boy in amusement. “Try not to be too hard on him, he’s harmless, really.”

The cat-boy huffed, and Pidge would bet he was trying to laugh.

 

* * *

 

“So, let me get this straight.”

“You’re not straight, Shiro, so that’s a moot point.”

“... You just turned someone into a cat, and this someone knows me, and so you need me to go to your house to turn them back to normal?”

“Uh, yeah. Pretty much.”

There was a crackle on the other side of the line, and then Shiro sighed. “Be there in fifteen. Just—No, nothing. Fifteen minutes.”

“Thanks, man.”

The line went dead, and Matt let his arm drop. He went back to Pidge’s room to share the news, and found the poor guy he’d turned into a cat perched on Pidge’s shoulder while she typed away on her computer. He looked strangely fascinated.

Matt blinked and, before they could notice him, quickly snapped up a picture. They were too cute not to. He put his phone in the back pocket of his jeans and then cleared his throat. Little sister and boy-cat turned to him at once.

“I talked to him, he told me he’d be here in fifteen.” He grinned and clapped his hands once. Pidge beamed at the boy-cat and carefully lifted him from her shoulder to put him back on the floor.

“That’s great! You’ll be back to normal in no time!”

The boy-can let out a pleased meow and his whiskers twitched. Matt had to clench his fists tightly to avoid giving into temptation and picking him up again. He didn’t want to commit the same mistake he’d made before.

“Okay! What about we show you around or something until he comes?”

“You do that,” Pidge said. “I really need to finish this today, so I can’t be distracted anymore. I’ll let Shiro in.”

“‘Kay. Thanks, Pidge.” He turned to the boy-cat and hesitated. “Uh, do you want me to carry you, or would you rather follow me?”

Big gray-blue eyes studied him for a moment before the boy-cat jumped and, using tiny claws and incredible dexterity, climbed up Matt’s clothes until he was perched on his shoulder. Matt chuckled. “Right. That settles it, then.”

It was fifteen minutes on the dot later when the bell rang.

“Shiro’s here!” Pidge hollered from down the stairs, and Matt rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I could say,” he muttered, grinning to the boy-cat that had left his shoulder to wander on his own. Matt thought he looked vaguely amused. “Let’s go get you back to normal.”

Before he could start for the stairs, however, Shiro appeared. His hair was in disarray and he had dark circles under his eyes, not to mention the shadow of stubble on his chin. Matt flinched.

“Bad week?” he asked sympathetically. He knew that look very well. It screamed: ‘MIDTERMS ARE HERE. I'M IN HELL.’

There was a worried meow, and the cat-boy rushed towards Shiro’s legs.

Shiro shrugged, smiling lopsidedly with a hint of ruefulness, but his attention was immediately on the little ball of fluff. “You weren’t kidding,” he said, a mix of exasperation and tired amusement. He crouched down and studied the boy-cat closely. “Hello, buddy. Who are you?”

The boy-cat meowed again and _glared_ at Shiro. And then Shiro’s eyes grew wide, his mouth hung open. He blinked.

“Oh my God.  _Keith?_ Is that _you?_ ” The long, almost happy meow that followed couldn’t be mistaken for anything but clear confirmation. Shiro’s mouth twitched, and suddenly he was falling on his ass, laughing in a way Matt hadn’t seen in a good while. “Sorry, sorry,” he said after a moment, though he hadn't stopped chuckling. The boy-cat hissed angrily at him and then scurried off to sit behind Matt’s legs. “C’mon, don’t be like that. Get here so I can change you back.”

After a bit of negotiation and a promise not to laugh again, Shiro finally got to reverse the transfiguration.

And then Matt died. And ascended into heaven. Were those angels, singing?

“—to Matt, Earth to Matt. Do you copy?” Shiro was saying, but Matt wasn’t listening to him. He was too busy staring at the really—like, _really_ —pretty boy that was now standing on two black jeans-covered legs in the middle of Matt's bedroom.

He was just a bit shorter than Matt and had dark, shaggy hair up in a ponytail and beautiful eyes. Matt felt that he could cry.

“You… you are so _beautiful!_ So beautiful! I’m so sorry I turned you into a cat, but I’m really not sorry at the same time because maybe I wouldn’t have met you if I hadn’t and that would've been a _tragedy_ , but I did and now I feel _blessed by all the gods_ —would you go out on a date with me?”

Shiro was laughing again, but Matt ignored him. He was focused on Keith and his rather bewildered expression.

“Matt, you’re embarrassing,” Pidge said dryly from her spot on the doorway. And since when was she there? “Feel free to ignore the fool,” she added, this time talking to Keith. Who was now blushing. Well, would you look at that?

“No, actually,” Keith said, and he had a pleasant voice, and really, Matt was _blessed._ He looked sideways at Matt and then smiled, a bit shy. “I think a date would be… uh, what did you call it? A good compensation. For being turned into a cat, and all.”

Matt grinned. The angels chorused.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! <3
> 
> Find me @matt-n-keith on Tumblr!


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